I live in BC but I’m from South America and for me it felt like a summer back home, I was surprised to see so many people passed away this weekend
Note that "wet-bulb temperature" (WBT) is not a specific value for temperature, it is a way of measuring temperature. You can cave a WBT of 0C, or a WBT of 35C. WBT is the temperature shown by a thermometer covered in a wet cloth over which air is passing.
This is relevant because it indicates the temperature that human skin can reach with any amount of sweat and wind. It is normally much lower than air temperature because of evaporative cooling effects; but, as humidity increases, WBT and air temperature get closer and closer; at 100% humidity, there is no more evaporation, so WBT becomes equal to air temperature.
The problems for human activity start at a WBT of 32C (90F), and a WBT of 35C (95F) means that even healthy humans with access to unlimited water will die of heat stroke in the shade after a few hours.
> The problems for human activity start at a WBT of 32C (90F), and a WBT of 35C (95F) means that even healthy humans with access to unlimited water will die of heat stroke in the shade after a few hours.
It’s incredible to think how “fragile” we can be. 35C is not cold or cool but it’s not extreme either. When you think about it, if your core temp drops to 35C you have (severe?) hypothermia. But if your skin can’t get cooler than that you die of heatstroke. Crazy to think about. Even crazier that we terraformed our planet to make this a reality in many more places than we started with.
The max time you can be in that environment is one to two hours.
Victoria was >15 degrees colder than Kamloops for instance.